All-time Best Babysitter Award Goes to...

Before, the all-time best babysitter award had been firmly in the grasp of my cousins Kevin & Abby, who stayed at our house while we went away for an anniversary weekend in wine country.  Not only did they suffer through G & P mischeviously calling 911 and having the police show up at our house, but also when we arrived for our meal at Cyrus -- possibly the best restaurant meal of my life -- we were greeted by a bottle of champagne they had bought for us, along with a note to enjoy ourselves and worry about the kids.  Heck, it appears we should have been worrying about Kevin & Abby.  It's true they were living in our guest room at the time during a housing-transition, but still, above and beyond the call of babysitter duties.

But now, we have a close contender for the prize:
Almost three years ago, we hosted a little French kindergarten girl and her dad as an unofficial exchange, alongside the big-kid exchange taking place between our school in SF and a school on the Normandy coast of France.  Last year, the whole family (dad, mom, older son, and younger daughter) visited us for a week in SF.  By now, we agree we pretty much feel like cousins, and we all communicate in some version of franglais.

Many weeks ago, we got a "save the date" for this weekend, our first living in Paris, when we were graciously invited to a party of an American friend of a friend who is now our new friend.  We cast around to everybody we knew, or had ever heard of, in Paris, to see if they had babysitter suggestions. Our French "cousins" from Normandy replied that they would be in Paris for the weekend and would watch the girls.

In our minds, this meant they were planning to be there anyway, and the girls could do a sleepover at their hotel.  But when they arrive for the weekend, we discover that they had driven several hours and come to Paris basically to see us and to babysit!  They sit in our tiny little apartment while we went to the party, and then drive back to the hotel with their 12-year old son (younger girl slept over with our girls) after midnight.  We later discover they have stocked the fridge with beer.  And the next morning, they take us to Angelina which has the best hot chocolate in the world.  I don't just mean that we love it.  I mean it is literally considered to be the best hot chocolate in the world.  http://www.angelina-paris.fr/#/home/ Coco Chanel (no pun on her name) used to drink her hot chocolate here.  Very fancy, very rich, and of course, at Paris prices.